INFORMATION SHEET

Types of Planting Materials (propagules)

1. Seeds
2. Vegetative propagules

Methods of plant propagation (reproduction):

A.) Sexual reproduction – production of plants using seeds. Fruits like jackfruit, pili, papaya, guyabano and
plantation crops like coconut and cacao are commercially propagated by seeds. Rootstocks that are used in
grafting are propagated by seeds.
Advantages of using seeds
a. Most practical and cheapest way
b. Stronger anchorage (for fruit trees grown from seed) which makes the tree resistant to strong winds

Disadvantages of using seeds

a. Fruit trees take a longer time to bear fruits.
b. The resulting plant does not retain the characteristics of the parents because of gene segregation.
c. Plants tend to grow into large trees

B.) Vegetative or Asexual reproduction – reproduction of plants using vegetative propagation

The advantages in the use of vegetatively propagated materials are:
1. They produce true-to-type plants
2. suitable for plant species that do not normally produce seeds or may also produce seeds but are
difficult to germinate
3. trees are smaller compared to those propagated by seeds and they bear fruits much earlier 4. highly
useful for species with distinct maleness and femaleness ( example: rambutan

Kinds of vegetative propagules

1. Runners- these are specialized growing stem parts that arise from the leaf axils of the plant and form
roots of their own that render them excellent propagating materials like strawberry and black pepper
2. Slips- leafy shoots that arise from axillary buds produced at the base
3. Suckers – adventitious roots that arise from underground stems below the ground.
4. Corms – underground solid stem structures that contain nodes and internodes; the corm can be
further divided into several seed pieces
5. Root cuttings – these are used in propagating breadfruit
6. Leaf bud cuttings – these are derived from axillary buds in stem and leaf; the stem bearing buds are
cut into pieces and inserted in a rooting medium (example: blackpepper)
7. Stem cuttings – these can be used in propagating grapes, vanilla
8. Asexually propagated materials produced from layerage, marcotting, graftage, budding